1-17-02

The Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Regulatory Reform will conduct its meetings and deliberations in a manner consistent with the following operating principles:

1. The Committee recognizes the need to enhance the trust of Americans that they will be well cared for, served, and protected.
2. Members have been selected to serve on the Advisory Committee because of their extensive knowledge and expertise. Each member will serve on the Committee as an individual expert, not as the representative of any particular constituency or stakeholder.
3. The breadth of issues identified in the charter will make subcommittees advantageous and allow for fuller, more detailed discussions. High priority issues will be identified and assigned to subcommittees. Members will: chair the subcommittees; note issues that apply to one or more other sub-committees and through assigned staff, refer those issues for resolution or coordination, as indicated; and provide progress and findings reports and options and recommendations at each full Committee meeting for discussion. The full Committee will make all final decisions and recommendations.
4. The Advisory Committee must establish priorities and work expeditiously to complete its charge. Members will make every effort to accomplish their work by set deadlines. As necessary, staff (through the Chair) will disseminate any information that requires full Committee deliberation and expeditious decisions, between scheduled meetings.
5. The Advisory Committee will seek to make decisions and develop recommendations through a process of consensus. Consensus does not mean that a decision must be unanimous, rather, all members must at least "be comfortable with" the decision. In consensus there will be no single veto authority to a decision. If unanimity cannot be achieved, there must at least be agreement with the decision by a "super majority" of the members, namely 75-80%.
6. The Advisory Committee will make every effort to maximize public input and stakeholders (including patients) input and awareness of its deliberations. The Committee will inform advocacy groups about how they can participate in Committee-sponsored meetings. Meetings of the Advisory Committee will be: open to the public; widely publicized with no less than two weeks advance notice of the meeting date; as centrally located as possible (or provide alternative means so that the public can participate via remote locations); and easily accessible to the public, including individuals with disabilities (i.e., by subway, if available, or by other forms of public transportation). Meeting rooms will be able to accommodate the expected audience. Meeting agendae will generally provide for testimony by outside witnesses and public comment. Committee agenda materials, papers, meeting transcripts, and copies of written testimony will be available to the public. The Committee will also consider comments submitted in response to a Federal Register notice.
7. The Committee will integrate all existing materials associated with the particular issue at hand to avoid re-creating the wheel (e.g., if GAO and Congress are already working on regulatory reform).
8. Members will make every attempt to attend and stay for the duration of each of three Advisory Committee meetings and one or more regional hearings. Maximum participation by Advisory Committee members is essential Teleconferencing, webcast or other electronic or telephonic means will be utilized to the extent available to insure full participation of members in sub-committee activities between full Committee meetings.
9. When engaging in public speaking, interviews with members of the media, or discussions with health care organizations and professionals, members should use "active listening". Members are required to carefully delineate their personal positions from those of the Advisory Committee. When making public statements, members are required to include a disclaimer that they are not speaking on behalf of the Advisory Committee, and that their remarks should not be interpreted to represent Advisory Committee positions or recommendations.